


doing our best

by delta_capricorni



Series: Nonbinary Byleth Week [5]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff, Lost Item, Nonbinary Byleth Week (Fire Emblem), Nonbinary My Unit | Byleth, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:33:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27477349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delta_capricorni/pseuds/delta_capricorni
Summary: “Oh! I got it! C’mon, Professor, looks like you’ve got some hands-on learning to do.”
Relationships: Hilda Valentine Goneril & My Unit | Byleth
Series: Nonbinary Byleth Week [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2002213
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	doing our best

**Author's Note:**

> today's story for day 5 of #nonbinarybylethweek focuses on the prompts of lost items & rain :B if you ever feel the need to scream into the void, know that it is probably endorsed by hilda valentine goneril. thanks for sticking w mi thus far!

Hilda was never one to complain too much when things didn’t go her away. Sure, the one day the students had off from the otherwise relentless barrage of training drills for their upcoming mission, the skies suddenly opened mid-afternoon and released a torrential downpour upon Garreg Mach; sure, she’d spent all morning fussing between different outfits, only to have to cancel her plans, on account of said rain, for a private teatime with her precious Marianne; and on top of all that, sure, she’d lost her favorite hairclip, the very first one she’d made by hand and which she’d brought all the way from the Goneril estate. Even though she had actually _tried_ for once to plan everything ahead of time, and even though in the end nothing at all was going to plan, she wasn’t about to complain. Nope! Not at all.

For there was never a statement she took to heart greater than “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” (even though Claude was most definitely teasing her when he said that). Was it not the wisest decision to find the easy way out and live life as smoothly as possible, instead of wasting time and energy on struggling for no gain or reason? Sure, her friends and family would all call her lazy for it, but that’s what made her so tough: the ability to deliberately leave unfulfilled the world’s expectations for her. And if in turn the world was going to leave unfulfilled her own expectations of it, well, she’d shrug it off, pretend everything was fine, and move on to the next thing. She’d just get up and get going. Right?

Speaking of expectations, she wasn’t expecting anybody to be looking for her on this day (why oh why did she tell Marianne “see you tomorrow” instead of “later today”?). Then again, nothing was going to plan, so of course someone would come knocking on her door when she was least expecting it. She halfheartedly hoped that it might be Balthus, here to distract her with a gambling game, or Ferdinand, with the latest hilarious attempt to persuade her into doing more work than she’d ever commit to…

She opened the door to find none other than Byleth. And, no offense to her dear professor, but they were the absolute last person in the entire continent she wanted to see, in this moment of despair.

“Professor! You are just the person I wanted to see!” she forced a grin, dragging them in by the hand, since she figured it’d be more effort to turn them away. “Come in, have a seat! What’s bothering you?”

There were some days when Hilda imagined herself slow dancing with Byleth, allowing them to dip her and trusting their sturdy frame to support her gracefully arched back mere inches from the dancefloor; there were other days when she imagined how gorgeous they’d be if only they’d let her work her magic on makeup and wardrobe renovations for their otherwise plain face and apparel. Today was neither.

“Oh, nothing’s bothering me—”

“Professor, you’re completely drenched! How could that have possibly happened? You don’t have to go through the rain to get to my room now, do you? Here, let me get you a towel and put on some tea…”

“Ah, I’m sorry for the trouble, but I actually came here to—”

“No worries! It’s no trouble at all. Hot tea will keep you from catching cold. Here, I’ve got a rose petal blend, or this mint tea, or… oh, I know you’ve been getting a taste for Almyran pine needle and chamomile recently. What’s that face for? Don’t think I don’t notice these things, Professor…”

“Hilda, really, I just wanted to—"

“Ugh, Professor!” Hilda nearly slammed her teapot onto the table, startling them both. “Just let me make this day go the way I want, which is as smoothly, and easily, and quickly as possible, okay?”

“…Okay.”

As they sat patiently and quietly, Hilda hummed softly to herself, in part to fill the suddenly awkward silence and in part to soothe her own nerves. Byleth didn’t deserve that outburst, she knew, and yet, something about their stoic expression and ever-unperturbed countenance particularly irked her today.

“Alright, I’m ready for your lecture,” she announced, carrying the gold-foil tea tray she’d specially bought to serve Marianne. “Please, regale me with tales of my inadequacy in class or on the battlefield.”

Byleth blinked a couple times, before reaching over for their teacup. “I’m here to do neither of those,” they said simply, without taking a drink. Perhaps she should’ve gone for the chamomile after all?

“So?” Hilda replied, then internally reminded herself not to be so rude. Byleth had done nothing wrong, after all. “Well, maybe you can give me a bit of teacherly advice then. How do I calm the fuck down?”

“…Sorry?”

Hilda suppressed the urge to groan loudly. “I mean, look at you. You’re never upset or angry, even when we royally fuck up our missions or fail our tests. And by we I mean me. So tell me, how do you do it?”

They mulled this over before replying, “That’s not true. I don’t know how to express myself, that’s all.”

“Don’t know how to?” Hilda guffawed. “Do you just have, like, a lifetime of pent-up angst inside you?”

“I don’t think so…?”

Hilda sighed, just as a faint peal of thunder rippled across the skies. “Oh! I got it! C’mon, Professor, looks like you’ve got some hands-on learning to do.”

Before they could protest, she was dragging them back outside, down the hallway and toward the yard in front of the dormitories. They nestled themselves in the corner in front of Byleth’s room, where they were protected from the rain under the archway and where they wouldn’t catch too much attention.

“Alright, Professor, we’re gonna do some training exercises.”

“Training for what, exactly?”

“Just follow my lead. One… two…” Hilda inhaled deeply, and then yelled with all the might and pent-up emotions she could muster: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”

When she turned back to Byleth, she almost burst out laughing at how shocked they seemed, mouth slightly agape and one hand frozen mid-air. At least that was a clear expression of emotion, she thought.

“Now it’s your turn,” she grinned and shoved Byleth to the edge of the terrace. “C’mon, let it all out!”

“Um, I’m not sure if I can…” In that moment Byleth was thinking of their two decades’ worth of training and discipline on precisely the opposite terms, that is, to be as calm and collected as possible, for the sake of their mercenary work. But of course Hilda was unaware of these thoughts.

“Here, I’ll do it again, so if you’re feeling some stage fright you can just yell a little bit. How’s that?”

“I—”

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! AAAAHHHH!! AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”

Seeing as she would not stop disturbing the peace until they participated, Byleth sighed, took a small breath, and said: “Aaaahh……..”

The two of them took one look at each other, before Hilda found herself keeling over with laughter. “ _What_ was _that_?!” she gasped, trying to get ahold of herself. “Wanna… haha…. try that one again?”

“No, thank you,” Byleth pouted. “Can we go back to your room now? I left my coat in there.”

She elbowed them playfully and pleaded, “Just one more time, I wanna hear that again! I’ll even accompany you again, so don’t be shy now, okay?”

“I think that was a one-time thing.”

“Aw, c’mon Professor. Do your best! No one’s judging, least of all me. Now, take a breath. Ready, set…”

“AAAAAAAAHHHH!!” “Aaaahhh!” “AAAHHH!!!” “Aaaaaaaahhhh!!”

Filled with childlike glee, Hilda dashed down the dormitory corridor and back to her room, yelling freely all the way, with Byleth running and shouting behind her. The clouds seemed to begin to clear overhead.

“There! How are we feeling? Was that cathartic or what?” Hilda panted—who knew running and screaming at the same time would be so exhausting?—but she for one was feeling much better already.

Meanwhile Byleth seemed a bit more relaxed, if not mildly amused. “That was …unexpected, to say the least. But it sounded like you really put your heart into doing that for me. So, thank you, Hilda.”

“Um, excuse me,” she smirked, “I put my heart into _everything_ I do! It’s just that usually what I do is avoid doing things.”

“Right.” They sat back down, somewhat winded themself. “…You know, Hilda, for all your efforts to subvert other’s expectations of you, you actually put a lot of work into, well, shirking work.”

“That’s because I don’t want to be a disappointment to everyone!” The words slipped out before she could stop herself. “And even when I do put in effort, when I actually try for once… none of it works out. My carefully planned day out gets literally rained on. My teatime with my favorite person in the world gets cancelled, _and_ I’m too stupid to ask to hang out anyway. And what’s more, in the process of arranging these meetings as well as my own hair and makeup, I lose my most precious belonging!”

“About that…”

Byleth reached into their overcoat’s pocket and fished something out. They passed over a handkerchief, which was damp but had successfully protected from the rain what had been carefully wrapped inside.

Hilda’s eyes widened as she opened the bundle. “Professor… this is my hair clip! How did you…?”

They only tilted their head slightly and wore a faint smile. “So it’s yours, then?”

Before she could respond, another knock came on the door. Who could it possibly be this time?

“H-hello, Hilda, um… is everything alright?” To her great surprise and immense pleasure, it was Marianne. “I heard some yelling in the courtyard, and it sounded a lot like you, but… ah… I’m sorry to bother you, maybe I’ll go back to my room now…”

“No, no, no, come in and stay awhile, Marianne!” she laughed, taking Marianne by the hand. “The party’s just getting started, right, Professor? …Wait, where are you going?”

Byleth was shrugging on their overcoat and slipping on their boots, already halfway out the door. “If you haven’t noticed, the rain looks to be clearing up, so I think I’ll be on my way. Thank you for preparing the tea; I apologize for not having any, but perhaps you could share it outdoors, alone, with Marianne?”

Hilda was absolutely beaming now. “Professor, you’re the best! Thank you so much!”

They waved a hand. “Do your best,” they reminded her, before slipping out to leave Hilda to her plans.


End file.
